Thread by @Kinofrau1

Tweeting live from the #ichbinhanna conference organized by @AKellerGEW !
Warming up!

Hashtags are: #hannabeidergew, #ichbinhanna & #dauerstellen!

1/ All tweets about the GEW conference today will be here in this thread.
We're starting NOW with @AKellerGEW saying the opening remarks!

#hannabeidergew, #ichbinhanna & #dauerstellen!

@AKellerGEW "10 000 Wissenschaftler*innen have contributed to the #ichbinhanna hashtag to fight the cynicism of the @BMBF_Bund & its attempt to wipe out research [...] @AnjaKarliczek has not helped" (to say the least) @AKellerGEW

@AKellerGEW @BMBF_Bund @AnjaKarliczek "we demand equal chance to enter German academia for all, irrespective of religious, ethnicity, gender, health conditions etc.
Academic colleagues are exhausted having had to develop digital Lehrkonzepte during the pandemic, family care, do own research + apply for jobs.....

none of which @AnjaKarliczek seems to be aware of." (Andreas Keller).

"Great concepts which can be found here with #ichbinhanna aren't enough to negotiate. We need to be able to exercise pressure [Druck]." (Andreas Keller)

I agree. This is exactly what the demand for #diversity & #intersectionality in #ichbinhanna has done.

Speakers are about to begin. Each talk will last 5 minutes each. Questions can be addressed via chat!

#hannabeidergew, #ichbinhanna & #dauerstellen

Now we're watching the #Ichbinhanna video by the @BMBF_Bund which was removed in a Nacht und Nebel Aktion that glossed over the catastrophic precarious working conditions in German academia.

I almost forgot the happy snappy voice over trying to sell me the Zeitvertrag 🤢

@BMBF_Bund @AmreiBahr about to begin whom @AKellerGEW considers the "pop star" of the #IchBinHanna movement.
#dauerstellen

@AmreiBahr: "German academia is ungerecht + ineffizient & both feed on each other [...] @BMBF_Bund's understanding of innovation in science is baffling [...] A lot of the experts seemly leave research. The only people in Germany who can enter academia & deal with its injustice...

have certain privileges which allows them to mitigate its precariousness"
#IchBinHanna #hannabeidergew

#JanaLasser will now speak abt #ichbinhanna's Reichweite auf Twitter.

@janalasser: "various hashtags contributed to the success of the movement, not just #ichbinhanna which has generated as much as interest on Twitter as #Songcontest but not as much as #EM"

@janalasser "15 K people have used the hashtag #ichbinhanna. What is its future? activities in the Gewerkshaft can help sustain the interest" @janalasser

[ MY OPINION]: @janalasser's work sure is interesting but why does it matter? generating data about data sounds a bit tautological to me. Plus, Empire's obsession to measure comes back with a vengeance here.

15/ #FreyaGassmann is now on!
"Befristung has reached levels the Bundesregierung never thought it would reach"

--> which begs the question: do politicans know what they're doing (to us)? Nop.

*politicians

16/ #FreyaGassmann: "WiMis are essential for German academia. 2015: Befreistungsanteil bei 90%. After looking into 18 000 job postings in Hochschulen, the duration of the contract was on average 24 months which makes both PhD + Habil impossible".

#IchBinHanna

17/ #AnnikaSpahn is now on! Her talk is titled: "Verlässliche Karrierewege und Dauerstellen – auch für Soziologie und Gender Studies"

18/ #AnnikaSpahn's Tweet about #Ichbinhanna & her mention of the word "gender" caused a shitstorm among conservative tweeters.

19/ #AnnikaSpahn: "My doctoral contract was 12 (?) months long. Most of the time I spent applying for new contracts, teaching duties, etc."

20/ #AnnikaSpahn: "My grandmother is doing for me what the university should do: she gives me money to be able to do my research which is a major privilege for me".

21/ #AnnikaSpahn: "on top of the precariousness, I have to justify the importance of #genderstudies in #Germanacademia."
Not all doctoral candidates want to be professors, some want stable WiMi jobs & this needs to be catered to as well so that people can live, says #AnnikaSpahn

22/ @Dori_Kiel is now on!!!!!!!!! 😍😍💜💜💪🏽😊😊💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝

23/ @Dori_Kiel: "11% of students have chronic health-related issues. Still, the academic world does not invite discussion & openness abt disability because it contradicts the academic Selbstvermarktung".

Word! 💪🏽

24/ @Dori_Kiel: "Having a disability or chronic illness costs money, time, internal Spielraum. The obsession with productivity in academia & the pressure to be present in conferences regularly & the pain, fatigue & side effects of medications & the nonexistent Barrierefreiheit..

for which academics with disabilities/chronic illness have to beg for [betteln] makes said academics less likely to get funding, positions etc. Yet, many people with disabilities/chronic illnesses aren't declared as such officially. " @Dori_Kiel
#IchBinHanna

26/ @Dori_Kiel at her best: intense, emotional, clear!
Amazing talk!
Thank you for sharing your experience, views, & suggestions with us #IchBinHanna. Diversity is unthinkable without this position💜😍😊💝💝💝💝

27/ @mahaelhissy is now on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😍😊💝💜😍😍😍😍

27/ The chat is now disabled (for me) Heh.

@mahaelhissy @mahaelhissy: "My visa to Germany was tied to the financing of my PhD which I secured myself." #IchBinHanna

@mahaelhissy: "PhD candidates without EU-passports can only work for 90 DAYS A YEAR!"

--> so you better have rich parents. #IchBinHanna

30/ @mahaelhissy: "I have no right to unemployment money after my PhD. I would have had to leave the country when my visa expired & left my home. I managed to get the German citizenship which is only possible bcs I never asked for unemployment $ or anything of the kind".

@mahaelhissy 31/ @mahaelhissy: "the right to stay anywhere [niederlassen] is a privilege & not a right (to everybody)@.

Exceptionally well-put: the clusterfuck of visas/work contracts/ emotional-financial-spiritual constant stress!

@mahaelhissy 32/ @choukri_meryem is now on!!!!!!!!!! 💝💜😍😍😍😍

33/ @choukri_meryem starts by reminding us that today is the day of awareness about anti-Muslim racism.
She says: "I am an add-on today, but don't worry, I don't take it personally" #IchBinHanna

@choukri_meryem 34/ @choukri_meryem was added to the event after pressure from me & others to diversify the event & thanks to the cooperation of @AKellerGEW !

@choukri_meryem @AKellerGEW 35/ @choukri_meryem "I am scientist from a non-academic household & this is not because of the system but despite the system. Who can afford to be an academic? I also wonder how can I take care of my parents, should it come to that."

36/ #JuliaSchütz is now about to start.

37/ #JuliaSchütz: "There's a difference between individual & collective Professionaliserung. The Collective Prof. is part of the institutionelle Aufbau & Qualifizierung (wissenschftsmanagement, for e.g)"

#IchBinHanna

38/#JuliaSchütz: In her powerpoint, Prof JS draws the Befriestung as a chainsaw breaking the ties that bind the collective & individual Professionaliserung that actually separates the ind. research from the market/academia/world.

39/#JuliaSchütz: Through short-term contracts, academia literally destroys expertise, research, knowledge. #IchBinHanna focuses on the (lacking) individual professionaliserung. The long-term consequences are also major, collective knowledge is being diminished.

--> insightful !

40/ Keywords for #ichbinhanna are "de-professionalization"/ "entprofessionaliserung"

#AnnKathrinHoffmann is now on!

41/ #AnnKathrinHoffmann: "precarious working conditions begin when one is a student although not all students want to be academics. These conditions are used as leverage against those who want to do PhDs. Students with this kind of ambition accept 3-months minimum wage contracts"

42/#AnnKathrinHoffmann: "wir [Stundent*innen] sind nicht tariflich abgesichert. Most people who can accept the jobs as student assistant/studentische Hilfskraft often come from privileged backgrounds"

#IchBinHanna

43/ In the chat, there's talk of strike of academics, especially in #Berlin with the hope of changing the #Tarifvertrag.

#IchBinHanna

44/ now #SimoneClaar is on!

45/ #SimoneClaar: "Change can only happen collectively if we all join a union & use our collective power to work structurally".

46/ Good point. The question is of course who is "we"?
#ichbinhanna

47/ @AKellerGEW: "Today's event is not the last one [about #ichbinhanna] & we have not dealt with all forms of discrimination."

48/ Q&A round! #IchBinHanna

49/ Those who have questions, I can type them into the chat! #Ichbinhanna

50/ My question in the round: "All the talk about #strike & change is important but who will be doing this change.....How can #ichbinhanna become (more) intersectional?"

51/ @choukri_meryem: "who feels addressed by the union & who is excluded? For e.g this event does not have a translator using sign language. So this is a question the union has to answer. How to create a culture around being in a union?" #IchBinHanna

52/ @Dori_Kiel on intersectionality: "the system's perspective is a white perspective, the akademiker-Kind, it comes from those who are privileged within the system so we have to include & pay attention to individual stories."

@Dori_Kiel 53/ #SimoneClaar: "We need help from people who are marginalized to diversify."

--> Gosh! Does anybody understand just how much emotional labor it is for people who are already marginalized on some level to explain over & over again to white institutions how to include them?

54/ Prof #JuliaSchütz: "it wd be useful to orient the discussion of #ichbinhanna away from precariousness of working conditions & argue that this system is not #competitive in order to manage to convince politicians to change the precarious conditions."

55/ @NasimaSelim: "we're not all called Hanna in #ichbinhanna so it would be useful, when speaking about international science, to have this event be in English as well or at least translated. #wirsindhanna".

@NasimaSelim 55/ @AKellerGEW: "Dauerstellen f. Daueraufgaben / long-term positions for long-term tasks". Great idea.

Still for those without top passports, this doesn't mean much. Visas remain befristet/limited often to only 1 year.

56/ Fascinating aspect about #Ichbinhanna is who tackled intersectionality & of course who did not 🙃

57/ #Ichbinhanna's future is intersectional or it won't have a (sustainable, fair-for-all, equitable) future ☝️🏽

58/ Summary of my view of #ichbinhanna conference, organized by @AKellerGEW:

- Compelling viewpoints/positions, especially by @Dori_Kiel, @mahaelhissy, @choukri_meryem & Prof #JuliaSchütz abt changes needed in the identity of the movement & future strategy.

@AKellerGEW @Dori_Kiel @mahaelhissy @choukri_meryem 59/ - The silence of some around the topic of #intersectionality in #ichbinhanna rang loud & clear despite @NasimaSelim pushing for more input in that direction by highlighting the limitations of the name "Hanna" in the movement.

60/ - #AnnKathrinHoffmann's insight abt precariousness in student jobs felt bitter but was essential to hear since it made the breeding grounds for precariousness in academia more evident.
Younger colleagues should not compromise on their life quality anymore than "we".

61/ A part of me also got a sense of the impenetrability of the law & I felt admiration for many speakers like #FreyaGassmann who can grasp legal intricacies & play with alternative scenarios (if we change this line, what happens then...?).

62/ Overall a fruitful discussion & a key moment in the visibility of #Bipocs with & without top passports in #Germanacademia.
For future events, I wish for more diversity, inclusion, languages, interpreters, translation & I'm confident we can get there if we WORK together....

63/ By working together, I don't mean adding #bipocs last minute as @choukri_meryem has pointed out but organizing future events in a collective capable of embracing the complexities of individual issues which @Dori_Kiel mentioned & systemic problems which @AmreiBahr spoke of.